Ceres' Q3 loss widens to USD 9.3m in FY 2012/13

Jul 12, 2013 - US energy crop seeds developer Ceres Inc (NASDAQ:CERE) on Thursday said its net loss had widened to USD 9.3 million (EUR 7m) in its third fiscal quarter to May 31 from USD 8.4 million a year ago.

Loss per share was USD 0.38, compared with USD 0.34 previously.

Yet, sales improved to USD 1.4 million from USD 1.1 million, mainly thanks to growing product sales. These were in turn the result of good biomass sales and the recognition of deferred revenue related to sales incentive and promotions during the 2012-2013 growing season in Brazil, Ceres explained.

The company is still putting most effort in its sorghum pipeline and its opportunity in Brazil, chief financial officer Paul Kuc said. Ceres reported that its mill customers in Brazil have seen crop performance improve in the last season that ended in May. For mills that reported results, yields of sugars fermentable into ethanol have jumped by some 50% on average season-on-season across mill locations. Ceres attributes the increase to product improvements related to biomass quality and productivity, better crop management and favorable growing conditions at most planting locations.

Ceres said that according to customer reports, its portfolio of sweet sorghum hybrids has outyielded competing products in the past season at multiple locations where side-by-side comparisons were available.

In the nine months through May, Ceres’s loss deepened to USD 25.2 million from USD 22.8 million, while revenues grew to USD 4.35 million from USD 4.2 million.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.765)

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